Transforming Climate Data into Climate Information Products for Communication—The Copernicus Climate Change Service Experience

By transforming climate data into compelling information products, communicators obtain a tool with which they can reach out to a wide audience on the topic of climate change. But what constitutes a compelling product and how to get there from the data?

At the Copernicus Climate Change Service, implemented by the ECMWF on behalf of the European Union, we provide climate change information based on data available in the Copernicus Climate Data Store. This data spans the past, present and future and covers a large number of climate-relevant quantities. Here we focus on how to transform this data into climate information products relevant for a wide audience, with focus in particular on data from past and present.

Currently, we produce a number of standard products on a monthly basis, where data from the past month is presented in the form of maps and texts only a few days after the end of the month, making it timely enough to serve the needs of media. These products present the past month in the context of longer-term climate trends, focusing on a given set of climate variables. From 2018 onwards we also produce the annual State of the Climate for Europe, which revisits the main climate events of the past year for this region. For both of the above, we provide different levels of the information, from very brief bullets or summaries that can be used by media and policy makers to the more in-depth information relevant for specialists.

In addition to these regular products, we also produce tailored products. Here we will highlight a collaboration between us and a major news broadcaster as a case study. Since autumn 2018 we produce a monthly 1-minute 'climate update', focusing both on climate themes and the main weather events of the past month. Since its beginning the format of the 'climate update' has undergone a number of changes to better suit both the intended audience and to better highlight what the data can tell us. We present the thinking behind the 'climate update', as well as discuss the challenges and opportunities met during its production.